No Respect
by Ranger Hitomi
Summary: Mr. Kincaid hated teenagers. They were loud, rude, insubordinate, free-willed, hormonal, whiny, angst-ridden, moody little brats.


_Notes: There isn't enough Kincaid love in the world. Seriously, this guy is awesome._

_I don't own _Shadows of Almia_ or _Pokémon_. This is shorter than I'm used to writing, but I had fun with it anyway. :) Drop me a review if you like it, and even if you don't._

**No Respect**

He hated children. Specifically teenagers.

They were loud, rude, insubordinate, free-willed, hormonal, whiny, angst-ridden, moody little brats who did not know how to sit quietly and _listen_, had no respect for authority– and worst of all, they ran in the hallways. _His _hallways! How dare they run in his hallways? It was _only_ his number-one rule – no running in the hallways! How hard was it to walk, anyway?

"I was late for Ms. April's class, Mr. Kincaid!" "I had to use the bathroom, Mr. Kincaid!" "That Bidoof was _huge, _Mr. Kincaid!" – he had heard every excuse in the book. And every time, those students went straight to detention. There were specifically three noncompliant ruffians who gave him grief on a daily basis – so he gave them detention on a daily basis.

One particular day, he had all three students in his environmental politics class. As usual, one was doodling on her notes, one was reading the newspaper, and the third was sleeping outright. And - was he _drooling_? Disgusting boy.

"Keith."

The boy did not move, but he did give some kind of muffled grunt.

Impatiently, Mr. Kincaid walked over to the boy's desk and rapped it with a slide ruler. The boy jerked awake. Even his two partners in crime looked up from their non-environmental-law related activities to view the scene.

"What, what… yeah?" The boy wiped the drool from his face. "Ew."

Kincaid folded his arms and stared down at the boy sordidly. "Long night, Keith?"

"Uh…" Keith glanced over at his friends, who merely shrugged and resumed their prior activities.

_Some friends, _Kincaid noted with satisfaction. "Were you perhaps playing a nice game of hide-and-seek after hours again? Exploring the basement? Or _running in the halls_?"

The boy leaned back in his chair defiantly. "We didn't break any of your favorite rules, if _that's _what you're implying."

Kincaid straightened back up, the edges of his lips curling up into a smile. "'We'? You mean, it wasn't just _you_?" Surprise, surprise – he knew that the Wonder Trio and their aspiring Operator-to-be friend Rhythmi never participated in rule-breaking activities without at least one of the others present – though he could never really understand how a good student like Rhythmi got herself mixed up with the likes of the other three. _She _at least always took notes and listened in class, despite what her extracurricular activities might have been.

Kincaid looked over at the doodling student. Now _here _was a problem child – on her first day, she had her Styler for all of three minutes and succeeded in _blowing it up_, of all things. Honestly, everything mechanical or electric in the school had suffered her curiosity – Stylers, lights, computers, the toaster oven in the teachers' lounge. Nothing was safe from her and her screwdriver. (Admittedly, the toaster oven now worked twice as fast as it used to and now doubled as an espresso machine… but that was beside the point.)

He snatched her notebook from her desk and, ignoring her protests, proceeded to flip through it. It was filled with complex diagrams of machines and engines, many of which even – _almost_ – impressed the teacher… okay, they did impress him. More than he cared to admit, anyway.

"Working on homework for Mechanics class, Kate?"

The girl looked embarrassed. "No, just some ideas that I had…"

It was such a shame that Kate was such a delinquent. She would have made a decent recruit for Altru. Not as good as Isaac, of course, not even close, but she had raw talent that, if fostered, could develop into something special. It was doubly inconvenient that she wanted to be a _Ranger_ – as if this undisciplined child could really be a competent _Ranger_. Ha!

"So, Kate, what were you doing last night that resulted in Keith not getting an adequate amount of sleep?"

The girl squirmed in her seat. "Uh… stuff."

"'Stuff.'"

Kate nodded vigorously. "Yes sir, stuff."

"And this… 'stuff.' It was clearly more important than international trade laws, yes?"

"The only thing more boring than international trade laws is international pollution emission laws," came a third, muttered voice.

"Care to repeat that for the rest of the class, Kellyn?" Kincaid said, turning to the final Ranger-in-training, who was deeply immersed in the latest edition of the _Almia Times_.

"Not really," was the boy's vague reply as he idly turned the page.

Kincaid wordlessly snatched the paper from Kellyn's hands.

"Hey!"

Kincaid could see the agony in the boy's eyes – how Kellyn loved reading and collecting issues of this worthless, biased newspaper that the Ranger Union held in its greedy hands.

"Mr. Kincaid…" Kellyn said breathlessly, reaching for it as though the teacher were holding his firstborn child by its ankle above a vat of acid and not merely – oh, what was it he was doing now? Oh yes – _holding a newspaper_, "…you're smudging the ink."

Some things these students said filled Kincaid with a loss of hope that this generation of Rangers, Operators, and Mechanics was going to succeed in life. This was one of them.

Kincaid cleared his throat and smirked to himself, rolling up the newspaper for added effect, relishing Kellyn's look of agony. "For sleeping in class, failure to comply with an authority figure's request, and reading material not related to the subject I am teaching, you three will not be attending free study hour with the rest of your peers, but rather, you will be spending it with me… in detention." This declaration was met with groans from all three students, much to the teacher's delight.

As he smugly walked back to the front of the room, he heard three responses to his allotted punishment:

"Detention _again_? Third time this week…"

"Yeah, and it's only _Wednesday_."

"My newspaper!"

With a renewed sense of superiority over these overly-independent youth, Kincaid addressed the rest of the class. "Since our lesson was interrupted, there isn't enough time to finish teaching you about international trade law, but there _is_ enough time to assign you homework!" He paused for the thrill of listening to every student in the class groan. "Your homework is…" he flipped open the textbook, "…to read chapter thirteen. Kellyn, would you kindly read the chapter title for us?"

Kellyn pulled the book out of his desk and turned to the chapter. He read the title to himself and let out an audibly frustrated sigh. Kincaid's smile widened. "Go on."

"Chapter thirteen… _International Pollution Emission Laws_," Kellyn said through clenched teeth.

There it was again – the groan, perfectly in unison.

But there was another sound added to the groan, one that he did not care for… not one bit.

"I bet his hairspray alone violates like half of these laws," he heard Keith mutter to Kate.

"What was that, Keith?" Kincaid said sharply.

"Nothin'."

Kincaid rounded on Kate. "_What did he say_?"

Kate shrugged innocently. "We were just admiring your hair, Mr. Kincaid. It's so… swirly."

Kellyn nodded. "Mr. Kaplan calls you Mr. Swirly-Hair when you're not around."

The three were subsequently assigned a week's worth of detentions.

For the next week, Mr. Kincaid was reminded of why he hated teenagers as he watched them making paper airplanes, writing notes, flirting, coloring, sleeping, releasing various vile bodily functions, and making rubber-band balls. They were loud, rude, insubordinate, free-willed, hormonal, whiny, angst-ridden, moody little brats who refused to listen to authority figures. And they wanted to be _Rangers_.

Keith may have a considerable amount of skill with the Styler, but he lacked motivation.

Kate may have been a mechanical prodigy, but she lacked the ability to pay attention to things.

Kellyn may have been a tactical genius, but he lacked people skills… and was far too cynical for his own good.

How he managed to get all three at once was beyond him.

The only thing that kept him motivated to finish teaching was the mission. After the mission – oh yes. Those pesky Rangers would be at his mercy. Watch those undisciplined young Rangers try bringing order when every Pokémon within 500 miles was under _his_ control! Well, this was assuming his little side plans of overthrowing his current boss went according to plan. All he needed now were some competent subordinates.

Too bad he'd never been successful with subordinates in his entire life.

**Fin**


End file.
